Corinthian Controversies: A Different Unity
Why does our body have an appendix? It doesn’t seem to do anything. Unlike our other organs, it has no grand function. Yet it exists and can cause serious problems…
Category: Series
Corinthian Controversies: Spiritual Gifts
It’s all good in sports until the referee or umpire makes a bad call. Tempers flare, dust flies, and people are ejected from the game. That’s nearly the same scene…
Corinthian Controversies – Reboot
What is Standard Operating Procedure Number One when a piece of tech is malfunctioning? Reboot it or remove its power. I’ve given that instruction countless times with success. And sometimes,…
Corinthian Controversies: Hair, Respect, and Value
The first line of a NASCAR race opening ceremony is, “Would you please rise and remove your hats.” In our culture, it is a sign of respect for what follows:…
Corinthian Controversies: Freedom’s Restraint
The Christian controversy of freedom versus restraint is nothing new. The early church struggled to find the right balance. As we’ve seen in the past few weeks on these pages,…
Corinthian Controversies: Big Little Sins
There’s a Midwestern idiom about people’s chickens coming home to roost. Basically, it means those moments when people receive the deserved results of their wrongful actions or attitudes. Some call…
Corinthian Controversies – Paul’s Mission
There is a strange twist in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. In both letters, Paul defends his way of ministry to them. It seems the Corinthians were offended that Paul…
Corinthian Controversies: Matters of Conscience
How we handle matters of conscience is our next Corinthian Controversy. Believers have struggled with this problem since the earliest days of the church. While there have been church splits…
Corinthian Controversies: Singles and Married
Our next Corinthian Controversy begins with a bit of a mystery. The Corinthian church had sent some questions to Paul. While we have Paul’s answer, we do not know the…
Corinthian Controversies: Fleeing Sexual Sin
There are times when it is good to read the Bible backward. By that, I mean that we begin at the conclusion and work towards the beginning of the section.…
Corinthian Controversies – Inherit the Kingdom
In 1 Corinthians 6:9, Paul uses a perplexing phrase. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” (1 Corinthians 6:9a, NASB 2020) What…
Corinthian Controversies – One Hot Mess
Talk about controversy. The next few verses are a hot mess of controversy. People have been arrested for reading them out loud. Folks have had their social media accounts banned…